1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet printing process wherein printing is conducted on a cloth by ink-jet system to provide a print having excellent gradation and high saturation, and to a printed article obtained by such a process.
2. Related Background Art
At present, textile printing is principally conducted by screen printing or roller printing. Both methods are however unfit for multi-kind small-quantity production and difficult to quickly cope with the fashion of the day. Therefore, there has recently been a demand for establishment of an electronic printing system making no use of any plate.
In compliance with this demand, a great number of textile printing processes according to an ink-jet system have been proposed. Various fields expect much from such textile printing processes.
Requirements of the textile printing processes according to an ink-jet system include:
(1) being able to achieve sufficient color depth upon coloring of ink;
(2) being able to provide a print high in color yield of coloring matter on cloth and to conduct a waste water treatment after a cleaning step with ease;
(3) causing little irregular bleeding due to color mixing between inks of different colors on cloth;
(4) being able to provide prints with wide color reproductivity; and
(5) being able to always conduct stable production of prints;
(6) being able to provide images which does not conspicuously give a feeling of grain; and
(7) being able to provide images inconspicuous in color unevenness (skitteriness of image) when mixing different colors.
In order to satisfy these requirements, there have been made, for the requirements (1) to (5), such various proposals that various solvents are added to inks, shot-in ink quantity on cloth is controlled, and cloth is subjected to a pretreatment. As an ink-jet printing method for a polyester fabric, it is also disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-118477 to use disperse dyes having a sublimation temperature of 180.degree. C. or higher.
Further, with respect to the requirement (6), it is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-305131 to use two kinds of inks different in dye concentration to prevent graininess. The use of the inks simply different in dye concentration can reduce the graininess from a deep-colored portion to a medium- or pale-colored portion. However, individual dots become conspicuous at portions low in shot-in dot density per unit area like an area ranging from a pale-colored portion to an extremely-pale-colored portion. Further, skitteriness of image occurs when mixed with inks different in color. Therefore, such a method cannot achieve sufficient effect to reduce graininess or skitteriness of image.